Printed by the Nobel
Prize Library
This is a poem that can be read at a celebration.
To
thee of ALL BEING
The FIRST CAUSE immense
Of matter and spirit,
Of
reason and sense
Whilst in the full goblet
Shall sparkle the wine,
So bright the pupil
The souls of men shine,
Whilst earth still is smiling,
And the sun smiles above,
And men are exchanging
Their sweet words of
love,
Thrills mystic of Hymen (1)
Through high mountains course,
And broad plains are heaving
With life's fertile force,
On thee in verse
daring,
From tight rein released,
On thee I call, Satan,
The King
of the feast.
Away aspersorium, (2)
With priest who would bind!
Priest, NOT at thy bidding
Gets Satan behind.
Behold, rust is eating
The edge of the blade
In the hand of great Michael (3)
The faithful
displayed.
The displumed Archangel
Descends to the void,
The thunderbolt's
frozen
Jehovah employed.
Faint pallid meteors,
Wan stars void of
light,
Like rain down from heaven
Fall angels in flight.
In matter
aye sleepless
Of forces the spring,
KING OF PHENOMENA,
Of FORMS, Lord
and King.
Here only LIVES Satan,
His power supreme
In a dark eye
flashes
With tremendous gleam,
Whether it languidly
Retreats and
rebels, (4)
Or bright and audacious
Provokes and compels. (5)
In
gay blood it sparkles
That's pressed from the vine,
Whose gift of swift
pleasure
Shall never decline,
Which can to our fleeting
Life new
strength impart,
Which puts off our sorrows,
To love gives a Heart.
'Tis
thou that inspirest
The song that doth rise
IN MY BOSOM, O Satan,
When that god it defies,
On whom guilty pontiffs
And cruel kings call;
Men's minds thou so shakest
As when lightenings fall.
Ahriman and Adonis,
Astarte, to thee,
Canvas, marble and paper
All lived and were free
When
Venus new risen
From billowing seas
Serenely made happy
Ionia's breeze.
On
Lebanon quivered
The trees at thy name,
When to gentle Cypria
Her
risen love came.
Thee chorus and dances
In joy celebrate,
Love pure
and virginal (6)
To thee dedicate
Mid the palm-trees fragrant
Of
Araby's land,
Where whitens the sea-foam
On Cyprian strand.
What
matter if fury
Of fierce Nazarene
From ritual barbaric
Of love-feast
obscene
Hath set with blest torches
The temples on fire,
And Argolis'
idols (7)
Hath hurled in the mire.
In cottages lowly
A REFUGE dost
find,
Amid household Lare
Folk keep thee in mind.
The God and the
Lover
A woman's warm breast
With his ardent spirit
Once having possessed,
Thou
turnest the witch
Whom long searching makes pale
To lend succor TO NATURE
O'er disease to prevail.
Thou to the motionless
Eye of the alchemist,
In sight of the magus
Who dares to resist,
Beyond the dull cloister
Its gates set ajar,
Revealest in brightness
New heavens afar.
In
lonely Thebaid
The wretched monks hide (8)
From thee and THINGS WORLDLY
In safety to bide.
Ah, doubtful soul standing
Where life's roads divide,
See, Satan is kindly,
Heloise at thy side! (9)
In vain with rough sackcloth
Thy flesh dost maltreat,
From Maro and Flaccus (10)
The verse will repeat
Betwixt
psalms of David;
'Twixt weeping and dirge
He causes beside thee
Delphic
forms to emerge.
Amongst those companions
Though garbed in black weeds
With rosy Lycoris
Glycera he leads. (11)
But other the phantoms
When finer the age,
At times he awakens
From Livy's full page, (12)
When
tribunes and consuls
And vast crowds that thrill
With ardor and passion
That sleepless cell fill,
He to the Capitol
Thy land to set free
Of Italic pride dreaming,
Oh monk, urges thee.
And you, Huss and Wycliffe
(13)
No fury of flames
Could stifle your voices'
Prophetic acclaims.
Send
forth on the breezes
Your watch-cry sublime
"A new age is dawning,
Fulfilled is the time!"
Already are trembling
Both miter and crown,
And cloistered seclusion
Rebellion BREAKS DOWN.
Then fighting and preaching
Under the stola
Comes Fra Girolamo
Savonarola. (14)
The cowl Luther
cast off,
And freedom he brought: (15)
So cast off thy fetters,
Be
free, human thought!
And shine forth resplendent,
Encircled with FLAMES,
Arise MATTER, Satan
The victory claims.
A beautiful monster,
A terrible
birth,
Runs over the ocean,
Runs over the earth.
Volcano like flashes
Through dim smoke it lowers,
It scales lofty mountains
Broad plains it
devours.
It spans the abysses,
In caverns it hides
And through the
deep cleft ways
Invisible glides;
Then comes forth undaunted,
From
coast to coast hies,
As from some fierce whirlwind
It sends forth its
cries.
As breath of the whirlwind
Spreads out on the vast
Expanse,
O ye nations
Great Satan goes past.
From place to place passes
Beneficient
He
On his chariot of fire
Untrammeled and free.
All hail to thee,
Satan!
Rebellion, all hail!
Hail, power of reason,
Avenge and prevail!
To
thee arise incense
And holy vows paid,
Thou, Satan, hast vanquished
The god by priests made. (16)
Carducci, best friend of Mazzini and
Al Pike! Thus, did our Serpent of Wisdom become: SATAN! The banner: THE PALLADIUM
(Baphomet), originally Athena's shield engraved on a dolphin bone.
Notes:
1) God of marriage whose symbols are bridal torch
2) Place where
xian-priests sprinkle people
3) Michael is an Arch Angel seen to be a warrior.
4)
Think physics.
5) Think chemistry.
6) Virginal, means Innocent and
Pure of Heart
7) Argolian Plateau.
8) Region of monks in Egypt, Thebais
region.
9) Peter Abelard was a teacher, Heloise was his lover, the story
is a tragedy.
10) Maro is Virgil, Flaccus is Horace, 2 Roman poets
11)
Lycoris, a woman celebrated in love elegy by Gallus. Glycera: a sacred notorious
Greek courtesan, the mistress of Memander and Horace.
12) Livy, Roman historian
13)
Hus, student of Wycliffe, forerunners f Protestant Reformation. Hus was burned
at the stake.
14) Savonarola was hanged for heresy.
15) Martin Luther
was seen as a rationalist at that time.
16) Carducci uses the small "g"
when referring to the Catholic God.
